South Platte River Basin: Redhill Forest to drill new supply wells

From The Fairplay Flume (Mike Potter):

The subdivision has looked at buying water from the town of Fairplay. Now it is looking at drilling permanent wells away from the subdivision that would provide clean water, and a site has been found. Curt Sayer, president of the Redhill Forest Property Owners Mutual Water and Cattle Association, said that two test wells were drilled near the Middle Fork of the South Platte River near Colorado Highway 9 that could provide water free of radium. “The new water plant is going to be a sweetheart plant,” he said. “We’re not going to have to remove any radioactive materials, making it far less expensive to operate than our old water plant.” The current plant costs around $180,000 per year to operate. The new facility would cost an estimated $50,000 per year to operate. In August 2008, The Flume reported that there were 580 lots in the subdivision and 150 of them were getting water. At that time there were 80 homes built in the subdivision, half of which were occupied full-time.

More South Platte River Basin coverage here.

SB 10-078: Facilitate reuse of municipal effluent

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

“There’s no way to know what this might do and what mischief it could cause,” attorney Peter Nichols told the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. “It looks like they could avoid court. This has the potential to change the place of use or the timing of use.”

The bill [SB78: Concerning the Use of Reusable Effluent That Has Been
Discharged Bact to a Water Body From a Domestic Wastewater Facility After Being Put To Beneficial Use] is sponsored by Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, and would allow cities that can measure the return flows from transmountain or fully consumable native water to reuse them — either by exchange or other means — without a trip to water court. Cities already have the right to reuse water “to extinction” when it is brought into the basin or when the consumptive use of crops on agricultural land is removed for municipal use. The cities, however, have to gain water court approval for how that water is used. This gives other water right owners the opportunity to assess whether the plan to reuse the return flows would injure their own ability to take water. The bill, as it is now written, places the responsibility of monitoring the measurement of return flows on the state engineer and does not mention water quality.

More 2010 Colorado legislation coverage here.

Cracks in the Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority?

From The Tri-Lakes Tribune (Nicole Chillino):

At the group’s Jan. 20 meeting, Cherokee Metropolitan District general manager Kip Petersen said Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District’s filing for an exchange plan for water in the Lower Arkansas Valley and a letter sent to Aaron Million expressing interest in his project came as surprises to him. Million, a Colorado entrepreneur, is working on a privately studied, built and funded project to pipe water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah and Wyoming to areas along the Front Range. The exchange plan filing came as a surprise to several members of the authority and some thought it could hurt the group’s negotiations with projects it is looking at to potentially provide the area with renewable water. “I’m pretty sure that’s hurt our credibility with the Super Ditch people,” Petersen said.

More Pikes Peak Regional Water Authority coverage here.

Grand Junction: NWF climate change forum recap

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):

“In the longer term, would I want my kids to get into the river outfitting business? No, because eventually we’re not going to have the water, we’re not going to have the experience to give our guests,” said Murphy, manager of Rock Gardens Rafting. From rafting, to skiing, to hunting, fishing and wildlife-watching, Colorado’s recreation industries face a changing future because of a changing climate, speakers said Thursday night at a Glenwood Springs forum presented by the National Wildlife Federation and other conservation groups.

More climate change coverage here and here.

State Senator Bruce Whitehead plans to introduce legislation to increase reporting requirements for conservation measures

From the Telluride Daily Planet (Ben Fornell):

As a man whose resume over the past 25 years is almost exclusively focused on water issues, the state senator from Southwest Colorado has several conservation measures on his mind. One bill he has agreed to sponsor will increase reporting requirements for water conservation measures, creating a system that will make the data more accessible to the public. “Conservation is important to Colorado and the use of its water,” Whitehead said.

More conservation coverage here.

R.I.P. Charlie Meyers

I missed this remembrance of Charlie Meyers from Charles Gauvin: President and CEO, Trout Unlimited. Click through and read the whole thing. Here’s an excerpt:

One of Charlie’s last wishes was unexpected gift – he asked that donations in his name be given to Colorado Trout Unlimited. Even in death, Charlie Meyers still put conservation first.

Snowpack news: Nearly 3 feet of new snow sitting on the San Juans

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):

Both U.S. 160 on the west side of Wolf Creek Pass and Colorado 17 over Cumbres and La Manga were closed all day. U.S. 285 south of Antonito at the New Mexico state line was also closed at the start of the day, although it would later reopen…

By Friday morning, 31 inches of snow had fallen at Creede. “Mama said there’d be days like this,” Town Manager Clyde Dooley said. Work crews were plowing there by 3:30 a.m., attacking drifts that had piled as high as 39 inches in spots. By 2 p.m. the town of South Fork had roughly 20 inches of snow on the ground…

While tough on drivers, the snowfall boosted the mountains’ snowpack. The Natural Resource Conservation Service’s gauges in the upper Rio Grande basin reported snow-water equivalent at 103 percent of average, up by 20 points from just a week ago. Gauges in the Sangre de Cristos reported the snow-water equivalent at 92 percent of average, up from 78 percent last week.

More coverage from the Cortez Journal (Kimberly Benedict). From the article:

“We’ve received 11.2 inches (of snow) for all the storms that have happened in the whole week,” said local weather observer Jim Andrus. “It has been pretty impressive.” The winter weather has given the area a head start on moisture for the year, providing 1.31 inches of liquid precipitation, 130 percent of normal for the month, according to Andrus.

I can’t help posting this line from the Cortez Journal: “If you have deer near your home, chances are you also have mountain lions.” You see, it’s winter down there and the deer have been in the old orchards lazing around eating well and now the lions are eating well.

More coverage from The Durango Herald (Shane Benjamin):

The snow began flying Monday evening and continued for four consecutive days with periodic interruptions. A total of three storms passed through the region with 12- to 18-hour breaks between each one. As of Friday morning, Durango had received 35 inches over the preceding four days. As of Friday afternoon, Pagosa Springs reported 31.3 inches, Durango West II subdivision 39.7 inches, and Wolf Creek Pass 48 inches. The 35 inches is also Durango’s total for January, which is more than twice the average January snowfall of 16.9 inches…

Four of the five major mountain passes in Southwest Colorado – Coal Bank, Molas, Red Mountain and Wolf Creek – closed Thursday night and remained closed Friday evening. Lizard Head pass closed Thursday night and reopened Friday night. Cumbres and La Manga passes also were closed, preventing drivers from taking an alternate route through New Mexico.

Southern Delivery System: Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District green lights project

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

The approval by the Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District came after two hours of discussion by the board on the adequacy of stormwater controls in Colorado Springs after a city council decision last month to disband the stormwater enterprise. “I would be embarrassed to be in a city of your size to let a politician or two misinform the public,” said Pueblo County Commissioner Jeff Chostner, who was elected chairman of the district board Friday. “You’re letting a few people in the community drive you in the wrong direction.” Chostner was referring to Doug Bruce, sponsor of Issue 300 — a November ballot proposal that led to the demise of the stormwater enterprise…

Richard Skorman, a former Colorado Springs City Councilman and an aide to former Sen. Ken Salazar when the Fountain Creek Crown Jewel project was launched, was even more blunt. “I want to apologize to Pueblo and our neighbors in Southern Colorado. I’m ashamed of what we’ve done,” Skorman said. “If it was June of 1999 (immediately after a large flood), the vote would have been 2-1 in favor of the stormwater enterprise.”

The Fountain Creek board voted unanimously to approve five separate requests from Colorado Springs Utilities, attaching conditions from its advisory committees. The technical advisory committee asked for detailed site development plans for the parts of the project that will be built in the Fountain Creek flood plain. The committee also wants the district to monitor the adaptive management plan required for the project by the Bureau of Reclamation. Colorado Springs plans to tunnel up to 30 feet deep under Interstate 25, railroad tracks and Fountain Creek when it crosses the creek with its pipeline just south of Pikes Peak International Raceway, said Keith Riley, permits manager for SDS. The citizens advisory committee also asked the board to include Condition 23 of the Pueblo County 1041 permit, which requires stormwater management in Colorado Springs. Utilities officials pledged to abide by the condition, but questioned why the district wants to duplicate Pueblo County’s effort. “Serving two masters is problematic,” said John Fredell, SDS project director.

More Southern Delivery System coverage here and here.

HB 10-1159: Mitigation for water exports

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

In [HB 10-1159 Concerning the Water Court's Authority to Consider Conditions in Decrees to Address the Effects of a Water Export Across Water Division Boundaries], Pace seeks to require mitigation agreements between communities giving up water (often rural) and those that are taking it through transport (generally urban). The agreements proposed by Pace would address both economic and ecological factors. If the water districts involved in a transfer could not reach an agreement, a judge in water court would set the terms. “It’s a carrot-and-stick approach that I’m proposing,” Pace said. “The carrot is the ability for urban and rural areas to work together collectively on mitigation agreements. The stick would be the provision for judges to apply mitigation when a compromise can’t be reached.”

Pace’s bill also calls for community meetings where citizens could express their positions on transfer agreements, something that doesn’t happen now. “The only individuals who have any standing in water court now are those with senior water rights who can show (economic) injury,” Pace said. “This bill would for the first time give communities a voice.”

More 2010 Colorado Legislation coverage here.

State Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee votes unanimously to move Jim Martin’s appointment to DNR forward

From the Grand Junction Free Press:

Gov. Bill Ritter’s pick to head the Colorado Department of Natural Resources has cleared the first hurdle to confirmation at the state Capitol. The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to back Jim Martin’s appointment. The full Senate will vote next.

Arkansas Valley Conduit: $14 million for project to be included in next year’s federal budget

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

“What we hope for is that it will be part of the president’s budget on February 1,” lobbyist Christine Arbogast told the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District on Thursday. “If it’s not all there, we’ll work with the congressional delegation (to get the full amount). . . . The deadline for that process is February 26.”[...]

This year could be the first time funds for the project are included in a presidential budget request, and hopes have been bolstered after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s visit to Pueblo last August. At a public meeting, Salazar made Arkansas Valley issues, including the conduit, a high priority. Meanwhile, the Southeastern district is moving ahead on pre-project activities on an accelerated schedule using an Environmental Protection Agency grant, said project manager Phil Reynolds…

Consultants also have begun discussing issues with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Bessemer Ditch and the Pueblo Board of Water Works. The initial path of the pipeline would cross Pueblo and could follow the ditch route toward the first customer, the St. Charles Mesa Water District…

The largest users are St. Charles, 17.47 percent; Lamar, 16.66 percent; La Junta, 14.22 percent; Rocky Ford, 8.05 percent; Las Animas, 6.7 percent; and Crowley County Water Association, 6.68 percent. Another 3 percent was set aside for contingencies. Communities east of Pueblo are entitled to 12 percent of the total yield of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project under past allocation principles. That averages 9,643 acre-feet per year, but can vary widely from one year to the next. The communities are entitled to more than 37,000 acre-feet of Fryingpan-Arkansas Project storage in Lake Pueblo, however.

More Arkansas Valley Conduit coverage here and here.

Snowpack news

From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):

As of Thursday morning, the snowpack in the South Platte River Basin, which includes the Poudre River watershed, is 23 percent below normal, according to snowpack data compiled by the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s National Water and Climate Center. A year ago, the basin’s overall snowpack was only 6 percent below average. The snowpack below Cameron Pass at Joe Wright Reservoir is 79 percent of average, down from 105 percent of average a year ago.

Statewide, the snowpack is well below normal as well. The Yampa River Basin is down to 69 percent of normal. The Upper Colorado River Basin and the Laramie and North Platte river basins are both 72 percent of normal, while the Gunnison River Basin today sits at 80 percent of normal. The Gunnison’s snowpack a year ago was 110 percent of normal.

More coverage from the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):

“What it means is, we’re probably a little better than halfway to building up our total peak (in snowpack),” said Chris Pacheco, assistant snow survey supervisor at the NRCS in Lakewood. “Between now and April, we’d have to get 130 percent of average snowfall to reach the average peak.”[...]

The snow is dry, too, with its water content nearly 3 inches below average at Cameron Pass and 76 percent of average statewide. “Seventy-six percent of average is pretty low,” Pacheco said, adding that the NRCS forecasts that there is a 10 percent probability the snowpack will return to average levels by the end of the snow season.

More coverage from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Webb):

“We’re right about halfway through the winter accumulation season right now,” [Mike Gillespie, snow survey supervisor in Colorado for the Natural Resources Conservation Service] said. “It’s not really too early, I don’t think, to be a little concerned. We’re starting off on a deficit right now.” One question is whether this year’s El Niño weather pattern will bring much relief to the state. Usually, that weather pattern benefits the southwest corner the most, he said. This week, a storm has been hitting that region hard, with the Silverton Mountain ski area reporting 17 inches of snowfall in a 24-hour period, and Wolf Creek Ski Area saying Thursday the storm had brought 29 inches, with a lot more snow still in the forecast. But Dave Merritt, a board member of the Colorado River Water Conservation District in Glenwood Springs, said he saw no new snow while driving Interstate 70 east to Denver on Thursday.

More coverage from The Aspen Times (Scott Condon):

Data collected at the Skico’s snow station near Cloud 9 Restaurant at Aspen Highlands showed there were 185 millimeters of water content in the snowpack, Burkley said Thursday morning. The median for this time of winter is 258 millimeters. The lowest season-to-date was 111 millimeters back in 2000. As of Thursday morning, this season ranked in the 20th percentile for snowfall over the past 30 years, according to Burkley. In other words, only six seasons have been drier since 1980. Three of them came between 1999 and 2001, he said.

More coverage from The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):

A storm system that could dump up to 4 feet of snow in the eastern San Juan Mountains hit Thursday afternoon and was expected to sit over the area through late Friday…

Foothills communities such as Creede and South Fork are forecasted to get between 8 and 17 inches of snow. Between 6 inches to a foot of snow are expected to fall on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, including Poncha and La Veta passes…

Thursday’s storm had dropped 5 inches of snow at Wolf Creek Ski Area by 2 p.m. The snowfall also led to the implementation of chain laws on Colorado 17 over Cumbres and La Managa passes. By 6 p.m., 4 inches of snow had fallen at Antonito, while an inch had fallen in Monte Vista, according to weather service spotters.

Coyote Gulch archives in danger of going missing

I was having some trouble this morning with images that I had uploaded to the the servers at Radio Userland my old hosting service for Coyote Gulch. After checking in the the folks at Userland I found this announcement.

UserLand has decided to close the Radio UserLand and Salon Radio services as of December 31, 2009.

Update: Due to server outages in late November and early December, the Radio UserLand and Salon Radio services will remain available until January 31, 2010.

You can continue to use your Radio weblog hosted with UserLand until the end of the year.

If you plan on continuing to use Radio to publish your blog, we would recommend that you look for an alternative web host if your weblog is being published to a UserLand server. You can use the FTP option [1] in Radio to publish to your own server.

The closure of Radio will also mean that the UserLand-hosted comments, trackbacks and stats tracking will be unavailable after the shutdown date.

If you have any questions, please send them to customerservice@userland.com

UserLand Software

All of Coyote Gulch’s content up until February 2009 is hosted there. Links to old articles and graphics will now be broken. ARGHHHH! (It makes me scream). There is a chance that I will be able to re-publish all the articles to another server but I have low confidence in Userland’s software. I apologize to all of you readers that still navigated to the old blog from time to time. I planned to pay my fees each year and hoped that Userland Software would at least keep everything on line in perpetuity even if they didn’t allow new posting. That doesn’t seem to be the case.

Colorado Springs: Colorado Rural Water Association’s 29th Annual Training Conference and Exhibition February 15-18

Here’s the lowdown from the Colorado Rural Water Association.

Tamarisk control: 15 camels working the tamarisk clusters near Loma

From Discovery News (Alyssa Danigelis):

Rancher Maggie Repp has unleashed her 15 camels in Loma, Colorado, on tamarisk clusters and noticed that they managed to obliterate every one of the hardy shrubs, Lisa Song reports in the High Country News.

More tamarisk control coverage here and here.

Grand Junction: Pit-liner bill upheld

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Dennis Wwebb):

Judge William W. Hood III issued the ruling Tuesday in the case brought by Fourmile Recycling Facility Inc. of Moffat County, and a second operation there.

The operators challenged rules adopted by the Colorado Solid and Hazardous Waste Commission, which was implementing a new state law. The Legislature passed the bill in 2008 out of concern about the potential health effects of the facilities in places such as the De Beque area in Mesa County. Its principal sponsors included state Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, and Bernie Buescher, a former state representative from Grand Junction now serving as secretary of state. The law requires new facilities to be located at least a half mile from homes, other occupied structures and parks. Companies also must now use synthetic rather than more permeable clay liners for disposal pits unless they qualify for waivers.

Brine waste from oil and gas exploration and production consists of salt water mixed with small amounts of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing of wells, along with crude oil and other hydrocarbons.

The new rules don’t apply to brine waste disposal by oil and gas well owners, who instead are subject to similar regulation by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Hood disagreed with plaintiffs’ contentions that the new rules were contrary to the 2008 law, unreasonable and unconstitutional, and that they usurped local regulatory authority over such disposal sites.

More groundwater coverage here and here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: Million Resources Group has seventeen entities in Colorado and Wyoming interested in the water

Update: Here’s the list from the Associated Press via CBS4Denver.com:

Central Colorado Water Conservancy District and its subdistricts, headquartered in Greeley, Colo., up to 150,000 acre feet; Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities: from 3,500 to 5,500 acre feet by the year 2040; City of Brighton, Colo.: up to 12,000 acre feet; Douglas County, Colo.,: up to 40,000 acre feet; East Larimer County Water District, Up to 5,000 acre feet; Fort Collins-Loveland Water District; up to 5,000 acre feet; Larimer and Weld Irrigation Co.: up to 20,000 acre feet; Lower South Platte Water Conservancy District, up to 35,000 acre feet; Norris Ranches (T-Cross Ranches, Norris Cattle Inc. in Colorado Springs); up to 20,000 acre feet; North Sterling Irrigation District; up to 25,000 acre feet; Penley Water Company in Douglas County, Colo.,; Up to 10,000 acre feet; Pioneer Canal and Lake Hattie Irrigation District in Wyoming, 8,000 acre feet; Prewitt Operating Committee, headquartered in Sterling, Colo., (Logan Irrigation Co., Illiff Irrigation District, Morgan Prewitt Reservoir Co.), up to 10,000 acre feet; Windsor Reservoir and Canal Co., up to 10,000 acre feet; Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District, up to 3,000 acre feet.

More coverage from the Associated Press (Ben Neary) via CBS4Denver.com. From the article:

Mike DiTullio, general manager Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, said Thursday his district serves 15,000 customers and ultimately could use another 10,000 acre feet of water. The district’s letter submitted to the Corps of Engineers expresses interest in securing an additional 5,000 acre feet per year. “We’re interested in any water project that could bring water into northern Colorado,” DiTullio said. “It doesn’t have to be (Million’s); we’re into any of them. We think that water is just an essential ingredient for the health and welfare of northern Colorado and Wyoming.”

Tim Murrell, Douglas County water resources planner in Castle Rock, Colo., said Thursday that the county’s letter expressing the need for up to 40,000 acre feet of water doesn’t indicate support or opposition to the pipeline project. “It wasn’t interest in this water,” Murrell said of the county’s letter. “It was a statement that we would need a certain amount of water from some source.”

From the Associated Press via KJCT8.com:

Some of the potential customers say they don’t necessarily endorse the pipeline project, which faces opposition in Wyoming…Million this week gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a list of 17 local water entities in Colorado and Wyoming interested in getting water. He says their needs exceed the pipeline’s capacity and prove that it’s necessary.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline coverage here and here.

Republican River Water Conservation District board meeting recap

From the Yuma Pioneer (Tony Rayl):

Legal counsel David Robbins told the board that the three states — Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska — have reached a contract agreement with arbitrator Martha Pagel of Oregon. Colorado invoked the non-binding fasttrack arbitration last August after Kansas and Nebraska voted down the pipeline plan as presented. The initial timeline called for the arbitrator being chosen by September 16, the trial to be held February 1-5, with the arbitrator’s decision due by March 1. Robbins said there was no news yet on a revamped timeline. “We are more in a mode of a tugboat on an oceanliner, trying to nudge the three states along,” he said, noting the district itself had very little power in terms of forcing the states into action…

Robbins told the board that Colorado officials were meeting with their Nebraska counterparts this week in an effort to find out how to reach an agreement on the pipeline. Robbins and Dennis Montgomery, another member of the RRWCD’s legal team, were going to be involved with the meetings…

Later in last Thursday’s meeting, district engineer Jim Slattery reported that pipeline consultant GEI strongly recommends not do the prequalifying of potential contractors until ready to actually do the project. He added that GEI is receiving phone calls daily from contractors eager to get started, and the process is receiving interest from all over the country. That was when Robbins spoke up again, asking if the district should build before it is clear how much credit toward compact compliance Colorado will receive for the water it sends down the North Fork from the pipeline. (As it stands now, only 22 percent of the water that crossed the gage at the Nebraska state line would go toward compact compliance. However, when all is said and done, it is expected Colorado will receive 80 to 100 percent credit.) He noted that if the arbitration goes well, then Colorado will be in a stronger position to go forward with the pipeline…

Board President Dennis Coryell said last Thursday the district is just beginning to receiving the feedback, and hopes all ground water management districts and commissioners provide their opinion within the coming weeks.
(The district already has spent more than $40 million on purchasing the wells for the pipeline, from the Cure family. The wells are located approximately 10 miles or more north of Laird in extreme eastern Yuma County. However, there is another $15 million of the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s $60 million loan left to spend on construction of the pipeline.) Board members did relay some feedback they have received. Greg Larson said Byron Weathers of Colorado Corn, indicated the organization would prefer to wait for arbitration to run its course. Several others said their ground water districts are leaning toward waiting for the arbitrator’s decision, as well as other issues to be settled, such as the amount of credit Colorado will receive, the sub-basin test on the South Fork being pushed by Kansas. (The state is fighting the idea of water being sent down the North Fork counting for the water the compact states Colorado should be sending down the South Fork.)

More Republican River Basin coverage here and here.

Arkansas Valley: Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District offers $40,000 per share for rights on the High Line Canal

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

A copy of a contract being offered by the Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District revealed the offer. Woodmoor is seeking to buy shares of the High Line and Holbrook canals, which primarily serve farmers in Otero County. The Woodmoor district is on the northern El Paso County line, east of Interstate 25. It serves 8,400 customers and some of the homes in the district drain into the South Platte basin.

It’s not known how many contract offers have been made, who has accepted or what prices are being offered on the Holbrook Canal. The contract provides a diligence period of four months with the possibility of extension. The price reflects the potential difficulty of moving water from the Arkansas Valley. Bessemer Ditch shares last year sold to the Pueblo Board of Water Works for $10,150 each. A share on the Bessemer historically irrigated 1 acre. Further down the river, on the Fort Lyon and Amity canals, shares have sold to municipal or industrial interests for a less than $2,500 per acre in recent years. High Line sold water to Aurora and Colorado Springs on a temporary lease agreement for $500 per acre in 2004-05.

The district filed for an exchange decree on potential Lower Arkansas Valley water rights on Dec. 30 in Division 2 Water Court. The move would allow Woodmoor to take water by exchange up reservoirs, both existing and planned, on the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek. On Wednesday, the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District board voted unanimously to oppose the water court application.

More Arkansas Basin coverage here.

Colorado State University: Water Tables 2010 February 20

Here’s the link to the website. They write:

Join us for the fifth year of Water Tables, the annual fundraiser supporting the Water Resources Archive on Saturday, February 20.

You won’t want to miss this evening of dinner and conversation with experts on Western water. This year’s theme, “Across State Lines: Sharing the Resource,” promises to be livelier than ever. The event starts at 5 p.m. with a reception and tour of the Archive at Morgan Library before moving to the Lory Student Center main ballroom for dinner.

You can choose to sit with one of 20 table hosts who will hold discussions during dinner on various aspects of how states and countries share water. Archival materials on display during the reception will illuminate some of the history behind the topic.

With one international and five out-of-state water experts hosting tables this year, the Water Resources Archive is giving greater attention to western water issues, as well as Colorado’s precarious position of being the Headwaters State.

Water Tables 2010 provides a unique opportunity to mingle with this special group representing diverse perspectives. Join us!

Here’s the list of table hosts and topics from the CSU Water Resources Archives Newsletter:

Colorado State University Libraries will host Water Tables 2010, its fifth annual fundraiser for the Water Resources Archive, at 5 p.m. Saturday, February 20th. The event starts with a reception and tour of the Archive at Morgan Library before moving to the Lory Student Center main ballroom for dinner.

The theme this year is “Across State Lines: Sharing the Resource.” Twenty table hosts will hold discussions during dinner focused on various aspects of how states and countries share water. Archival materials on display during the reception will illuminate some of the history behind the topic.

With one international and five out-of-state water experts hosting tables this year, the Water Resources Archive is giving greater attention to western water issues, broadly, as well as Colorado’s precarious position of being the Headwaters State. Water Tables 2010 provides a unique opportunity to interact with this special assemblage representing diverse perspectives.

This year’s table hosts and topics are:

Don Ament, Former Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture
Topic: Is ag dry-up inevitable?

Alan Berryman, Assistant General Manager, Engineering Division, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District
Topic: Interstate comity is for the birds

John D’Antonio, New Mexico State Engineer
Topic: The Rio Grande Compact — sharing the resource

Derek Everett, Visiting assistant professor, History Department, Metropolitan State College of Denver
Topic: Fluid boundaries: water and western state lines

Jennifer Gimbel, Director, Colorado Water Conservation Board
Topic: The state of Colorado’s role in balancing non-consumptive needs and meeting the state’s future consumptive use demands

Neil Grigg, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado State University
Topic: Water for a sustainable future: challenges to the political system

Taylor Hawes, Colorado River Program Director, The Nature Conservancy
Topic: The Colorado River Compact: is it up to the task?

Tom Iseman, Program Director for Water Policy and Implementation, Western Governors Association
Topic: How far has multi-state water management gotten us? Where will it lead us?

Frank Jaeger, District Manager, Parker Water and Sanitation District
Topic: Colorado-Wyoming Coalition: developing Colorado River water across state lines

Eric Kuhn, General Manager, Colorado River Water Conservation District
Topic: How can we keep from losing the resource? How would we deal with a compact call on the Colorado River?

Harry LaBonde, Jr., Wyoming Deputy State Engineer
Topic: The Green River Pipeline Regional Watershed Supply Project — perspectives from Wyoming

Mario Lopez Perez, Engineering and Technical Standards Manager, National Water Commission of Mexico
Topic: The Colorado River as an international river: Mexico’s perspective

Jon Monson, Director of Water and Sewer, City of Greeley
Topic: The Laramie-Poudre Tunnel and the Colorado-Wyoming Compact of 1957: a tale of transfer ag to urban

Patrick O’Toole, President of the Family Farm Alliance, and former member of President Clinton’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission
Topic: A historical look at western water policy development

Jennifer Pitt, Senior Resource Analyst, Environmental Defense Fund
Topic: Si se puede? U.S.-Mexico cooperation on the Colorado River

Rock Ringling, Managing Director, Montana Land Trust
Topic: Private land conservation’s role in the preservation of wetlands and water resources

Bill Rinne, Director, Surface Water Resources Dept., Southern Nevada Water Authority
Topic: Augmenting the Colorado River — sharing the resource

David Robbins, President and Co-founder, Hill & Robbins, P.C.
Topic: Why we have to share — limits on our right to consume

Randy Seaholm, Former Chief, Water Supply Protection, Colorado Water Conservation Board
Topic: Environmental flows, Colorado’s compact entitlement and compact administration

Steve Vandiver, General Manager, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Topic: Riding herd on the Rio Grande Compact in the San Luis Valley

More Colorado Water coverage here.

Flaming Gorge pipeline: No list of customers yet but Aaron Million names three interested parties

From the Associated Press via LocalNews8.com:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last year directed Million to name potential customers to prove the project’s need. Million issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying Douglas County and the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District in Colorado and Lake Hattie Irrigation District in Wyoming are interested. Million didn’t have a full customer list available. The list was not available Wednesday afternoon from the Corps of Engineers.

More Flaming Gorge pipeline (Regional Watershed Supply Project) coverage here and here.

Snowpack news

From The Aspen Times:

Snowfall in Aspen and Snowmass has been scant since late December and locals have been crossing their fingers this week. The Aspen Skiing Co. reported 3 inches of new snow at Snowmass early Wednesday, while Aspen Highlands picked up 2 inches over the past 24 hours, according to the morning report. Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk both picked up an inch. Sunlight Mountain Resort near Glenwood Springs had 2.5 inches. Snowfall reports around the state varied widely, with resorts in the southwest enjoying the biggest dumps. Wolf Creek reported 10 inches over the past 24 hours on Wednesday morning, and Durango Mountain Resort had 13 inches. Silverton boasted 8 inches. Telluride reported 4 inches of new snow. Powderhorn in far western Colorado picked up 8.5 inches, but most resorts elsewhere around the state were reporting 1 to 3 inches, though Vail and Beaver Creek both reported 5 inches of new snow early Wednesday morning.

From the Cortez Journal:

“The storm has definitely favored southern Colorado and southeastern Utah,” said Norv Larson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction, said Tuesday. Snowfall accumulated to 10.1 inches through Wednesday morning, according to Jim Andrus, local weather observer. The snow has brought much-needed moisture to the region. “Right now for the month of January we have .95 inches of water and normal is 1.01 inches,” Andrus said. “We are already sitting at 94 percent of normal.”[...]

Thus far, Cortez has seen 31.6 inches of winter snow with measurable snow on the ground for 45 straight days. “That’s the longest stretch of measurable snow I’ve ever had here,” Andrus said.

First decade of 21st century was the warmest on record

From the Associated Press (Randolph E. Schmid) via The Denver Post:

In 2009, global surface temperatures were 1.01 degree above average, which tied the year for the fifth warmest year on record, the National Climatic Data Center said. And that helped push the 2000-2009 decade to 0.96 degree above normal, which the agency said “shattered” the 1990s record value of 0.65 degree above normal. The warmest year on record was 2005 at 1.11 degrees above normal…

In the United States last year the average temperature was 0.3 degrees above normal. And on average it was moist, with average annual precipitation in 2009 for the 48 contiguous states some 2.33 inches above the long-term average at 31.47 inches. It was the 18th wettest in 115 years of record keeping. However, dry conditions occurred during much of the year across parts of the Southwest, Upper Mississippi Valley and southern Texas, the agency said. And there was periodic low rain and snowfall in parts of a ring around the country from the northern Rockies, Far West and Southwest to the southern Plains and Southeast, then up along the East Coast and back across the Great Lakes.

More climate change coverage here and here.

Helen Hankins appointed to lead Bureau of Land Management in Colorado

From the Associated Press via Grand Junction Free Press:

Helen Hankins, a 58-year-old native of Council, Idaho, is currently associate state director for the BLM in Arizona. Hankins replaces Sally Wisely, who retired last year. Hankins has worked for the BLM for about 40 years, including an assignment in Durango. As Colorado state BLM dikerctor, Hankins will oversee 815 employees with a budget of approximately $75 million. Colorado has 8.3 million acres of BLM public lands and 27 million acres of mineral estate.

Here’s the release from the Bureau of Land Management (Celia Boddinton):

Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey today announced the appointment of career employee Helen Hankins as the new state director for the agency’s Colorado State Office. Hankins is currently the associate state director for the BLM in Arizona.

“Helen has worked at all levels and across the nation for the BLM,” Abbey said. “The depth and breadth of her experience and her dedication to our country’s public lands is exceptional. I’m very pleased she has accepted this crucial position.”

Hankins, 58, is a native of Council, Idaho. She joined the BLM in Albuquerque, N.M., serving as a clerk-typist in the agency’s student work study program in 1970. She went on to serve in increasingly responsible positions in Durango, Colo., Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, Washington, D.C., Elko, Nev., and Phoenix, Ariz.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of New Mexico and was one of the first two women to complete the BLM’s 5-month-long minerals law school program.

In Colorado, Hankins will oversee 815 employees with a budget of approximately $75 million and administer 8.3 million acres of BLM public lands and 27 million acres of mineral estate, which are concentrated primarily in the western portion of the state.

Hankins, an active member of both Rotary International and Toastmasters International, is married to Michael Mauser, with whom she has hosted eleven exchange students. Helen and Michael look forward to continuing their shared passion for hiking and backpacking in Colorado. She plans to assume her duties on February 1.

Craig: Yampa/White River Roundtable recap

From the Craig Daily Press (Andy Bockelman):

At its Wednesday night meeting at the Holiday Inn of Craig, the group of regional water experts unanimously tabled discussion for at least two future meetings after hearing a presentation from Steamboat Springs water attorney Tom Sharp.

In [his proposed Yampa Doctrine], Sharp wrote that Article XIII of the 1948 Upper Colorado River Compact — which requires that the state of Colorado not cause the flow of the Yampa’s Maybell gauging station to drop below 5 million acre-feet during the course of 10 years — among other things, needed closer, more specific regulation to ensure that Colorado is responsible for the curtailment of its own water should the Lower Basin states require it.

Sharp said the Yampa’s flow is 1.2 million acre-feet and users only require about a tenth of it. But he said modern users could be vulnerable since its water is now needed for regional power plants, reservoirs and other such uses, as opposed to the pre-1950s period when it was primarily used for irrigation and other agricultural purposes.

Attendee Eric Kuhn, of the Colorado River District — who said he wasn’t officially representing the group — spoke against the Yampa Doctrine, saying he didn’t think passing it would better the issue of water rights and regulations. “I’m not sure I agree that the state will be jumping quickly into rule-making,” Kuhn said.

I missed this story Tuesday. It’s a preview of yesterday’s Yampa/White River roundtable meeting where local water attorney was Tom Sharp to present his “Yampa Doctrine” methodology to protect Yampa irrigators if there is a call on the Colorado River from downstream Colorado River Compact states. Here’s the report from Mike Lawrence writing for Steamboat Today. From the article:

The Yampa Doctrine is an effort to protect local water users in the event of a worst-case scenario for the Colorado River system: a so-called “compact call,” a case of extreme water shortage in which the 1922 Colorado River Compact is enacted and Lower Basin states — Nevada, part of Arizona and California — call for their allocated water from Upper Basin states including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, part of Arizona and New Mexico. Sharp said Monday that there is not yet a specific plan for how state water officials would acquire the allocated water — in other words, who gets shut off — if such a call occurs. “What (the Yampa Doctrine) would do would be to protect the Yampa Basin users from being forced to curtail their use, to stop their use, when there is a Lower Basin call and the Upper Basin has to deliver up water at Lee’s Ferry (in Arizona),” Sharp said.

Sharp said Yampa River users could be vulnerable to state action because regional reservoirs and power plants have “very junior water rights.” “We need to be prepared to make the Yampa Doctrine argument as a defense to being the youngest guy on the block,” he said.

State water officials have not agreed with his interpretation of water policy language, Sharp said. “Nobody else particularly thinks that’s appropriate,” he said of the Yampa Doctrine.

More Yampa River Basin coverage here.